joe scarborough

Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter is notorious for making outrageous, provocative statements that help her sell books and get people worked up. Tuesday morning on 'Morning Joe,' she wheeled her act out again, but the audience didn't hear what she had to say because MSNBC hit the mute button.

Coulter appeared to call John McCain a "douchebag" during a discussion about flip-flopping and consistency among Republican presidential candidates. The audio cut out several times during her comments, and when the sound came back on, Coulter seemed surprised and asked, "What did I say, 'douchebag?'"

"Just blur it all out," Joe Scarborough interjected. "Okay, well they got the general drift of that," Coulter replied. This may be the craziest thing to happen on 'Morning Joe' since Mark Halperin called President Obama a "dick." Check out a clip of the moment from from Politico after the jump.

Mark Halperin, Time Magazine editor-at-large and MSNBC correspondent, has been suspended indefinitely by MSNBC after saying live on 'Morning Joe' (6AM, weekdays on MSNBC) that President Obama acted like "kind of a dick" in his Tuesday press conference. Immediately taken aback by Halperin's language, Joe Scarborough scrambled to ask his producers if they could put the comment on 7-second-delay, but they were unsuccessful in doing so.

Several minutes later, Halperin issued an on-air apology to the President and to viewers.

MSNBC released a statement after the incident explaining Halperin's suspension.

Speaking at The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week, Donald Trump, who is considering a run for president as a Republican, bluntly declared that Ron Paul has "zero chance of getting elected" president. Paul ultimately won CPAC's straw poll on who should be the GOP nominee in 2012.

Paul stopped by 'Morning Joe' (weekdays, 6 AM on MSNBC) where Joe Scarborough asked the libertarian congressman if he thinks he can be elected president.

"You always take that risk when you put your name on the ballot," Paul quipped, eliciting laughter. Then he pointed out that despite his strident and often iconoclastic views he has been elected to congress 11 times.

As for Trump calling him out?

"Somebody said 'how many times has Donald Trump been elected?' Paul continued. "Does he really have the right to go and criticize others (by) saying they're unelectable?"

Smart money would say that neither Paul nor Trump would have any chance of being elected president. However, any feud that could potentially pit Donald Trump's runaway ego against Ron Paul's fervent fan base is only to be encouraged.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham was on 'Meet the Press' Sunday to talk about the fiscal issues facing the new congress. However, after viewing a clip of Graham's appearance, all 'Morning Joe' (weekdays, 6 AM ET on MSNBC), host Joe Scarborough wanted to do was discuss how much foundation Graham was wearing, comparing him to Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie's kabuki-make-up-faced character from the '70s.

"Willie, did you follow David Bowie through the Ziggy Stardust period?" Scarborough asked Willie Geist.

"I think I know where you're going with this," Geist responded, motioning toward his own face.

"(Graham) had more makeup on there than Bowie did during Ziggy," Scarborough concluded.

Mika Brzezinski then admonished the two of them for focusing on Graham's appearance, rather than what he had said. So they dropped it. However, Mika wasn't able to prevent 'Morning Joe's' producers from playing the song 'Ziggy Stardust' in Graham's honor.

Joe Scarborough is one of the most prominent members of the just-launched 'No Lables" political movement, which aims to present bipartisan and centrist solutions to America's problems.

Over the weekend, liberal thinker Frank Rich used his New York Times column to dismiss No Labels as a "bipartisan racket," and influential conservative voice Rush Limbaugh has also railed against the movement on his radio program.

This critisicism of No Labels has pleased Scarbarough, as he explained on 'Morning Joe' (weekdays, 9 AM on MSNBC).

"(No Label's founder) Mark Mckinnon, has done somethign incredible, and I congratulated him yesterday, he has brought together Rush Limbaugh and Frank Rich."

While most assume that No labels' aggresive centrism is the cause of Rich and Limbaugh's shared disaproval, what if they both just don't like recording artist Akon, who has inexplicably written an auto-tune heavy theme song for the nascent poltical movement? We're just throwing that out there.

It appears likely that the latest cache of government secrets released through Wikileaks comes from 22-year-old US Army Intelligence Analyst Bradley Manning, who was charged earlier this year under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for giving classified material to Julian Assange's controversial media organization.

Manning currently faces a maximum of 52 years in prison if convicted, and on 'Morning Joe' (weekdays, 6 AM ET on MSNBC) Joe Scarborough suggested he serve at least 25 years.

"I'm sure he did it as a matter of conscience," Scarborough said. "I've got to say though, the government needs to lock him up for a very long time." (Mike Barnicle disagreed with Scarborough's assessment of Manning's motives, instead prescribing them to "anger.")

"Other people need to know if I do this, I'm going to go to jail for at least 25 years," Scarborough continued.

What do you think? Is 25 years about the right punishment, if Manning is guilty of what the military is charging him with? Or do you think he should serve more or less time?

MSNBC is suspending 'Morning Joe' host Joe Scarborough without pay for two days for making eight unreported campaign contributions of $500 each to Republican candidates running for local office in Florida.

Earlier this month, fellow MSNBC host Keith Olbermann was also suspended two days under similar circumstances, except that his contributions went to Democratic Party candidates. Just like in the case of Olbermann, Politico uncovered the donations using a fairly simple database search.

"This morning Joe Scarborough informed me that he made eight contributions of $500 each to local candidates in Florida between 2004-08," read a statement from MSNBC President Phil Griffin. "In my conversation with Joe two weeks ago (in the wake of Olbermann's suspension) he did not recall these contributions. Since he did not seek or receive prior approval for these contributions, Joe understands that I will be suspending him for violating our policy."

Scarborough has issued as statement of apology: "I recognize that I have a responsibility to honor the guidelines and conditions of my employment, and I regret that I failed to do so in this matter. I apologize to MSNBC and to anyone who has been negatively affected by my actions."

In article published on the Huffington Post Tuesday, veteran political journalist Howard Fineman reported that Mike Bloomberg and GOP-congressmen turned television pundit Joe Scarborough are making plans to run for president together.

On 'Morning Joe' (weekdays, 6 AM ET on MSNBC) Wednesday, Scarborough, who would likely be the VP candidate in this scenario, vehemently denied Fineman's story:

"Mike Bloomberg and I have not talked about this directly, or indirectly, or super, super secretly indirectly," Scarborough explained.

"Could you imagine a worse vice president?" Scarborough wondered about himself. And indeed, his 'Morning Joe' colleagues all agreed that Scarborough's bluntness would make him an uniquely awful vice-president.

While Scarborough couldn't be more adamant in his debunking of Fineman's report, the only statement in America life that is more suspect than a politician denying he's seeking higher office is Brett Favre claiming he's retired.

The GOP's historic gains in the House of Representatives have made soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner one of the most important people in American politics. During his speech Tuesday night, the Ohio Congressmen broke down repeatedly as he recounted his personal history of "chasing the American dream," waiting tables, mopping floors, putting himself through college and working in a small business.

The gang played the clip of Boehner's waterworks on 'Morning Joe,' (weekdays, 6 AM ET on MSNBC), and Joe Scarborough couldn't help but take a little dig at Boehner's man tears.

"Even John Boehner can't believe he's Speaker," Joe quipped, triggering laughter on the panel and in the live audience.

"That was nice," Mika Brzezinski opined.

It should be pointed out that this isn't the first time the perpetually tan Boehner, who is known for getting emotional when speaking, has cried in public.

Whether you think these salty displays show sincerity or are a bit much, we can probably all agree that between Boehner's tan and his tears, the folks over at Saturday Night Live should have some really good material to work with.

On 'Morning Joe, '(weekdays, 6 AM ET on MS NBC) the gang was discussing an article in Politico which revealed the GOP establishment will try to prevent Sarah Palin from being their party's nominee in 2012. Palin has attacked the article because it was based on anonymous sources. In explaining why political journalists need to use anonymous sources, Joe Scarborough made a revealing comment about how the television punditry game works.

"In 2005, all of my Republican friends, all of them, started saying George Bush was going to put them in the minority," he explained. "All of them would tell me that in the green room, and I would go on air and criticize George Bush and they'd say, 'You're not a good Republican, Joe."'

"And we started hearing the same thing about about Obama a year ago. Democrats -- all Democrats -- would tell us, this guy doesn't know what he's doing. And then we'd go on the air and say Democrats are saying this guy doesn't know what he is doing. And they'd go: "No we're not, the Democrats love him, he's wonderful."

So if you turn to the talking heads to help you digest Tuesday's election results, it's important to remember that they're as much actors playing a role as they are experts giving an honest opinion.

As part of two-year re-branding ad campaign, the liberal cable news network MSNBC has begun using the tag line "lean forward."

Savannah Guthrie, co-host of the 9 AM MSNBC political show 'The Daily Rundown,' appeared on 'Morning Joe' (weekdays, 6 AM on MSNBC) Monday, and it gave the gang an opportunity to have fun with the new slogan.

As Joe Scarborough reminded viewers to check out the 'The Daily Rundown' 'after 'Morning Joe' was finished, a promotional picture of Guthrie and her co-host Chuck Todd appeared on the screen.

"That's a snazzy shot by the way," Scarborough commented. "Sort of a prom picture."

"Chuck's leaning forward a little too much," Willie Geist quipped, in reference to how close the two anchors were standing to each other in the photo.

Something the tells us this is just the first of many, many "lean forward" jokes.

The 'Morning Joe' (weekdays, 6 AM ET on MSNBC) anchors recently attended an advertiser meet-and-greet with the personalities from NBC's other morning shows. One of the question they were each asked was what time they wake up in the morning before going on-air in the early AM hours.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were blown away when they learned most of their counterparts on the 'Today' show, like Meredith Vieira and Al Roker, wake up between 2:30 and 3:30 AM.

"I got no alarm and I wake up at 5:30," Scarborough explained.

"Why does Al (Roker) wake up at 3:30?" Scarborough then wondered

"He has to make his kids lunch," Mika reminded him.

"Those are big lunches, I guess, but look at Al, that explains it," Scarborough, joked, even though Roker has lost a great deal of weight over the years.

Bill Clinton was on 'Morning Joe' (weekdays, 6 AM ET on MSNBC) Thursday. The fact that Joe Scarborough, in his former life as a Congressman, voted to impeach Clinton, made things a bit awkward. But Scarborough made up for it with a bunch of flattering questions, like this one:

"Doesn't it make sense for the country to say OK, let a guy serve for eight years, then they can take a term or two off. But then if they have something to give back to America in terms of leadership, give them that opportunity."

"That's what I believe the rule should be," Clinton agreed. "With life expectancy being so long, and people being so alert into their 70s and sometimes their 80's, I think there's an argument for that."

To be fair, Clinton did follow that up by clarifying if we were to change the Constitution and allow a third, non-consecutive term, the rule change shouldn't apply to current term-limited presidents, like himself.

However, we think he was just saying that so the ever effusive Scarborough would disagree and tell everybody how great it would be if Clinton was allowed to be president again. (Which he didn't do.)

After viewing a television ad from SarahPac, Sarah Palin's Political Action Committee, the gang on 'Morning Joe' (weekdays, 6 AM ET on MSNBC) was unanimous in their opinion that the former Alaska governor will be running for president in 2012.

Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist, Mike Barnicle and Harold Ford Jr. all agreed that Palin will take a shot at the White House. Norah O'Donnell then added a twist:

"She will run as part of the Tea Party, not as a part of the Republican Party," O'Donnell predicted.

However, it might be wise to take such predictions with a grain of salt. Since the media -- especially the cable news talkers -- would be the greatest beneficiaries of the madness that would surround a Palin candidacy, talking heads could be engaging in a bit of wishful thinking when they suggest Palin will run.

Comments Christine O'Donnell made in a few years ago about mice with fully functioning human brains had the crew on 'Morning Joe' (weekdays, 6 AM ET on MSNBC) howling with laughter Tuesday morning.

"American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains," O'Donnell argued on the three-year-old clip from 'The O'Reilly Factor.'

Joe Scarborough, who made little attempt to contain his cackling, had this to say about the clip:

"That wasn't from like 1984, that wasn't when she was on the satanic alter having her first high school date. That was like '07."

"How did that not make the papers, if there were mice with human brains," Willie Geist deadpanned. "It seems like we had heard about that."

"If it's just a mouse ... That's just like sitting in a cage. That's not as scary as a fully functioning mouse, with a human brain," explained Scarborough, who was so worn out from laughing that he started to get his words mixed up.